Boron Cantilever and Ruby Cantilever, Why Ruby?

Berylium is toxic if it is inhaled only. Thus you can have Be tweeters and so on because the Be does not become airborne.
Dhl93... I used to work in the Jewelry business and have a GG. Niether Saphire or Diamond as a crystal is particularly " very brittle and fragile." How many Diamond rings have you seen break apart? Diamond cantilevers must be the crystaline form to be called "Diamond" otherwise it is just carbon.

It is fine Berylium particles that are toxic. These get lodged in the lungs and will cause berylliosis a chronique lung disease. Small dosages appear to be sufficient to cause the disease, i.e. exposure to concentrations in the range of 1mg/m3 of air.

This is a serious issue in the mining at metals industries where the beryllium is mixed in trace amounts with other less toxics dusts.

As for exposure to a cantilever made of beryllium, I would not worry.

All this expertise is less impressive in the internet era than it once might have been. We can all Google. It might be more fun to get back to discussing cantilever materials and their effect on LP reproduction. (I apologize to all for starting this sidebar about toxicity.)

Mechans:

Diamond and sapphire are extremely brittle, in that you cannot bend or flex them without breakage. I did not mean they were not strong materials.

In a long needle shaped (ie length>>>diameter) structure like a cantalever, they would be very fragile. As used in jewelry in bulk crystal form, of course not.

In a cantalever, they are probably attached to an elastomer of some sort to allow flexing and movement. This allows some degree of freedom but I still suggest that these must be handled with the utmost care.

Elizabeth, could you comment on the differences between the Karat 23 and the 17D3?

I have the 23RS so am familiar with that - just curious about the difference with the latest 17D3...

I believe the 17 refers to a 1.7mm cantilever where the 23 refers to a 2.3mm cantilever ?
So there is more than one difference - material (ruby vs diamond) and cantilever length.

Heck even basic aluminium cantilever at 1.7mm would provide magic I would have thought!